Capturing the
Technical Heritage of Experts
Author: Rodney Jones
Presenter: Adrian Deneys
Socrates
• Socrates lived from 469 – 399 BC
• The Socratic method of teaching involved
asking questions
• The great philosopher, Socrates, did not
record his own words
• Plato recorded the
teachings of Socrates
Socrates and Plato
Socrates
Plato
Socratic Method
• The Socratic method led to the development
of the scientific method
Library of Alexandria
• From ~280 BC to a few
hundred years later
Library of Alexandria
• The Library of Alexandria was the centre of collected knowledge in the ancient world
• Scholars such as Euclid and
Archimedes are said to have written, studied, and experimented there
Euclid Archimedes
Internet and information explosion
Between the birth of the world and 2003, there were five exabytes of
information created. We [now]
create five exabytes every two days.
- Google CEO Eric Schmidt, 2010
Between the birth of the world and 2003, there were five exabytes of
information created. We [now]
create five exabytes every two days.
- Google CEO Eric Schmidt, 2010
Danie Krige
David Robertson
Mintek’s Pyrometallurgy Division
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
• Scientific publishing of journal papers has been in existence for about 350 years
• The world’s oldest and longest-running scientific journal, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, was first published in March 1665, in London
• Henry Oldenburg – Secretary of the Royal Society and first Editor of the publication – ensured that it was ‘licensed by the council of the society, being first reviewed by some of the members of the same’, thus making it the first ever peer-reviewed journal
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
• The Royal Society announced in October 2011 that they had made the historical archives of the Philosophical Transactions (over 60 000 scientific papers)
permanently free to online access from anywhere in the world
• All of the historical archival papers (published more than 70 years ago) from the Philosophical Transactions are now freely available on their website
• Current publications are available via delayed open access where older articles (12 months for biological sciences, and 24 months for physical sciences) are made freely available
• They also allow a hybrid open access or open choice option where authors can pay an article-processing charge that allows for their article to be made freely available immediately upon publication
OneMine.org
SAIMM Journal Papers
SAIMM Conference Papers
Infacon
Infacon
Ken Mills
Ken Mills video
Ken Mills video – Continuous casting
Ken Mills video – Slag humour
MIT Open Courseware
Conclusions
• Knowledge is expanding rapidly, but there is a skills shortage; therefore the knowledge of
experts should be captured
• Encourage open self-archiving of publications
• Companies should maintain online collections of staff papers
• Technical societies should make journals and conference proceedings available via open
access
• Record short courses, presentations, and
lectures
http://www.mintek.co.za/Pyromet/
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